Fossil of great ape sheds light on evolution

May 1, 2013 ? Researchers who unearthed the fossil specimen of an ape skeleton in Spain in 2002 assigned it a new genus and species, Pierolapithecus catalaunicus. They estimated that the ape lived about 11.9 million years ago, arguing that it could be the last common ancestor of modern great apes: chimpanzees, orangutans, bonobos, gorillas and humans. Now, a University of Missouri integrative anatomy expert says the shape of the specimen's pelvis indicates that it lived near the beginning of the great ape evolution, after the lesser apes had started to develop separately but before the great ape species began to diversify.

Ashley Hammond, a Life Sciences Fellow in the MU Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences, is the first to examine the pelvis fragments of the early hominid. She used a tabletop laser scanner attached to a turntable to capture detailed surface images of the fossil, which provided her with a 3-D model to compare the Pierolapithecus pelvis anatomy to living species.

Hammond says the ilium, the largest bone in the pelvis, of the Pierolapithecus catalaunicus is wider than that of Proconsul nyanzae, a more primitive ape that lived approximately 18 million years ago. The wider pelvis may be related to the ape's greater lateral balance and stability while moving using its forelimbs. However, the fingers of the Pierolapithecus catalaunicus are unlike those of modern great apes, indicating that great apes may have evolved differently than scientists originally hypothesized.

"Pierolapithecus catalaunicus seemed to use a lot of upright behaviors such as vertical climbing, but not the fully suspensory behaviors we see in great apes alive today," Hammond said. "Today, chimpanzees, orangutans, bonobos and gorillas use forelimb-dominated behaviors to swing below branches, but Pierolapithecus catalaunicus didn't have the long, curved finger bones needed for suspension, so those behaviors evolved more recently."

Hammond suggests researchers continue searching for fossils to further explain the evolution of the great apes in Africa.

"Contrary to popular belief, we're not looking for a missing link," Hammond said. "We have different pieces of the evolutionary puzzle and big gaps between points in time and fossil species. We need to continue fieldwork to identify more fossils and determine how the species are related and how they lived. Ultimately, everything is connected."

The study, "Middle Miocene Pierolapithecus provides a first glimpse into early hominid pelvic morphology," will be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Human Evolution. The Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences is in the MU School of Medicine. Co-authors included David Alba from the Autonomous University of Barcelona in Spain and the University of Turin in Italy, Sergio Alm?cija from Stony Brook University in New York, and Salvador Moy?-Sol? from the Miquel Crusafont Institute of Catalan Palaeontology at Autonomous University of Barcelona.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Missouri-Columbia.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. Ashley S. Hammond, David M. Alba, Sergio Alm?cija, Salvador Moy?-Sol?. Middle Miocene Pierolapithecus provides a first glimpse into early hominid pelvic morphology. Journal of Human Evolution, 2013; DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2013.03.002

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/Envk-jxfwjs/130501132100.htm

dale earnhardt oscar predictions

430 dead so far in Bangladesh building collapse

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) ? Rescuers found more bodies in the concrete debris of a collapsed garment factory building Thursday and authorities say it may take another five days to clear the rubble.

In addition to the 430 confirmed dead, police report another 149 people are still missing in what has become the worst disaster for Bangladesh's $20 billion-a-year garment industry that supplies global retailers.

Maj. Gen. Chowdhury Hassan Suhwardy, the commander of the area's army garrison supervising the rescue work, dismissed reports that up to 1,000 people were missing and accusations from some relatives that authorities are hiding the bodies to keep the death toll low.

"Don't listen to such rumors," he told reporters.

A mass Muslim funeral was held Wednesday for 34 victims whose bodies were too battered or decomposed to be identified. Cemetery workers have dug several long rows of graves where scores more unidentified bodies are expected to be buried in the coming days.

Suhrawardy said Thursday that 20 bodies were recovered overnight, bringing the death toll to 430. Rescue workers believe more bodies are buried on the building's ground level, and they're using cranes and cutting machines to clear the tons of rubble.

Five garment factories occupied upper floors of the eight-story Rana Plaza building that collapsed April 24, a day after huge cracks appeared in the building and police ordered an evacuation. The owner of the building is accused of telling tenants it was safe despite the order.

The disaster and a garment factory fire five months earlier that killed 112 people exposed the unsafe conditions plaguing Bangladesh's $20 billion-a-year garment industry that supplies many global retailers.

Mohammed Sohel Rana is under arrest and expected to be charged with negligence, illegal construction and forcing workers to join work, which is punishable by a maximum of seven years in jail. Authorities have not said if more serious crimes will be added.

The Bangladesh High Court has ordered the government to confiscate Rana's property and freeze the assets of the owners of the factories in Rana Plaza so the money can be used to pay the salaries of their workers.

Rana had permission to build five stories but added three more illegally. After the cracks appeared, a bank and some shops refused to open but factory managers told their workers to go back in. Hours later the building came down in a heap of concrete.

Among the garment makers in the building were Phantom Apparels, Phantom Tac, Ether Tex, New Wave Style and New Wave Bottoms. Altogether, they produced several million shirts, pants and other garments a year.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/430-dead-far-bangladesh-building-collapse-073430895.html

halftime show super bowl halftime show 2012

The Bank of Japan's bold new board

TOKYO (Reuters) - The Bank of Japan unleashed the world's most intense burst of monetary stimulus on April 4, promising to inject about $1.4 trillion into the economy in less than two years.

Here are short profiles of the Bank of Japan's board that took the decision:

HARUHIKO KURODA, 68, GOVERNOR - He was plucked from the Asian Development Bank by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to deliver radical reflationary policies at the Bank of Japan. Took office in March. Kuroda had long criticized the BOJ for doing too little, too late to end deflation and boost the Japanese economy. A voracious reader of books ranging from philosophy to detective novels.

KIKUO IWATA, 70, DEPUTY GOVERNOR - He was among the most firmly established critics of the BOJ, arguing the central bank could have ended deflation sooner with more aggressive action. Took office in March. He had advocated the BOJ target base money - cash and deposits at the central bank - in guiding policy. That was one of the steps the BOJ took on April 4.

HIROSHI NAKASO, 59, DEPUTY GOVERNOR - He was in charge of the central bank's international affairs before being named to Kuroda's team in March. With his fluent English and deep overseas contacts, Nakaso played a key role in trying to contain the damage to global banks from the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008.

KOJI ISHIDA, 65 - The veteran banker voiced caution over shifting the BOJ's policy framework too quickly, even as governor-nominee Kuroda was advocating aggressive action. Ishida feared that overloading the bank's balance sheet with long-term debt could bind its hands on future decisions. He has been willing to cut interest rates, proposing in December cutting the 0.1 percent floor on money-market rates. His proposal was rejected 8-1.

TAKEHIRO SATO, 51 - The former economist at Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities had argued for buying foreign bonds as a future option for the BOJ. He backed down after the idea drew heat from other G7 nations that consider it tantamount to currency intervention. Initially regarded as a policy dove, the amateur violinist was one of two members who dissented to the BOJ's January decision to double its inflation target to 2 percent.

RYUZO MIYAO, 48 - A soft-spoken former academic known for his research on inflation-targeting, he is considered among the board's keenest proponents of unorthodox easing. Miyao has proposed several policy changes in the past, including boosting the BOJ's asset-buying and loan scheme, but without garnering a consensus.

YOSHIHISA MORIMOTO, 68 - The former utility executive has always voted with the majority since joining the board in 2010. He has also warned the government must play its role in beating deflation by pursuing structural reform and deregulations to make Japan an easier place to do business.

SAYURI SHIRAI, 50 - The former International Monetary Fund economist often sided with ex-governor Masaaki Shirakawa, who argued the BOJ had already offered enough stimulus. The board's only woman, while mostly voting with the majority, surprised markets in March by proposing, shortly before Kuroda joined, that the BOJ combine its two bond-buying schemes to make it easier to buy longer-dated debt - an idea the incoming governor was floating. The proposal was rejected 8-1 before being adopted at Kuroda's first meeting in April.

TAKAHIDE KIUCHI, 49 - The former Nomura Securities chief economist was one of the two board members voting against raising the BOJ's inflation target to 2 percent in January. He said this was far above a sustainable level for Japan, which has seldom had inflation that high, even during asset bubbles. Kiuchi, despite earlier warning against loading up on longer-dated debt, joined the rest of the board in voting for most of Kuroda's reflationary policies in April. But he proposed watering down the BOJ's commitment to hitting its inflation target in two years. His proposal was rejected 8-1.

(Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Bill Tarrant)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bank-japans-bold-board-120333994.html

Kevin Krim Autumn Pasquale

CSN: Nationals trainers revive cameraman

Updated at 8:45 p.m.

ATLANTA ? Two members of the Nationals' training staff thought they helped save a man's life Wednesday afternoon, reviving a cameraman who suffered an apparent heart attack at Turner Field, only to learn later in the evening he died at an Atlanta hospital.

Reuben Porras, 61, was working for MLB Network, setting up in a media workroom underneath the stadium around noon, when he collapsed. A colleague rushed down the hallway and found Nationals head athletic trainer Lee Kuntz and training assistant John Hsu, who were in the nearby visiting weight room.

Kuntz and Hsu grabbed an automated external defibrillator that had only been installed in the visiting clubhouse a week ago and rushed to the aid of Porras, who had lost consciousness and wasn't breathing. Kuntz used the AED machine and CPR to revive the man, then waited for paramedics to arrive.

Porras was taken to a nearby hospital and admitted to the ICU. Kuntz was still awaiting word of his fate shortly before the start of the Nationals' game against the Braves. He later was informed Porras had died.

Kuntz said he and his entire staff receive CPR training each spring, though this was the first time he'd needed to use it at the ballpark.

Source: http://www.csnwashington.com/baseball-washington-nationals/talk/nationals-trainers-help-save-mans-life

Girls Love Beyonce gun control

Fidelity Contrafund's Danoff frets over Apple rivals

By Tim McLaughlin

BOSTON (Reuters) - Fidelity Contrafund manager Will Danoff, the biggest active shareholder in Apple Inc, cut his stake in the iPhone maker 12 percent in the first quarter and cited "heightened concern" about increasing competition.

Danoff, whose $92 billion Contrafund has beaten 94 percent of peers over the past 15 years, is considered one of the most savvy stock pickers among mutual fund managers.

"Given our heightened concern surrounding the increased competition Apple was facing, we continued to trim our stake in the company during the period," Danoff said in a first-quarter overview.

Apple's shares have climbed nearly 10 percent in the last week since the company announced it would increase its dividend and share buybacks to $100 billion. On Tuesday, Apple issued $17 billion of bonds, the largest non-bank deal in history, to fund some of the increases.

But the stock remains off 37 percent since hitting an all-time high of $705.07 in late September. Apple's shares were down about $3.90, or nearly 1 percent, at $438.55 in late morning trading on Nasdaq.

Danoff said investors continue to express concern about the company's decreasing profit margins as well as increasing competition from device makers including Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.

He began trimming his Apple stake late last year, but had said he still found the stock to be relatively cheap and remained upbeat about the company's cash generation prowess. In January, for example, Danoff wrote that Apple was generating $1 billion of free cash flow per week, according to a Fidelity Viewpoints interview posted on January 16.

Contrafund owned 10.1 million Apple shares at the end of March, down from 11.56 million at the end of 2012, according to Boston-based Fidelity's latest disclosure.

Danoff was hardly alone in trimming his Apple position. Some 870 institutional investors pared their Apple holdings in the most recent reporting period, while 419 sold off their entire positions, according to Thomson Reuters data. That compared with 254 investors initiating Apple positions and 1,185 adding to existing holdings.

Contrafund held $4.5 billion in Apple stock at the end of March. Its largest holding was a $5.1 billion stake in Google Inc.

Contrafund returned 9.18 percent in the first quarter, underperforming the 10.61 percent advance of the S&P 500 Index. But over the past 15 years, Danoff has outperformed the S&P 500 by 3.3 percentage points per year.

Apple was the fund's largest detractor in the quarter, Danoff said in his overview. Still, he said he continued to believe that smartphones represent one of the most robust product cycles in the tech sector.

He also favors biotech companies, overweighting on Biogen Idec Inc, which is known for its multiple sclerosis drugs. That stock was the fund's single-largest contributor to relative performance during the quarter, rallying more than 30 percent on the approval of Tecfidera, an oral drug used for treating MS, Danoff said in his overview. Contrafund owned $1.7 billion worth of Biogen shares in the first quarter.

Overall, Danoff said he continued to find cheap stocks, particularly in relation to bonds, where blue-chip companies boast free cash flow yields of 5 percent to 7 percent. That is well in excess of the 1.65 percent yield on the 10-year Treasury bond.

Contrafund's largest weighting is in the tech sector, where Danoff is betting on companies that disrupt the software industry with cloud computing offerings. Danoff, for example, owned $610 million worth of Salesforce.com Inc at the end of the quarter.

(Additional reporting by Aaron Pressman in Boston.; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Maureen Bavdek)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fidelity-contrafund-manager-worries-over-apples-competition-133752406.html

Hollister old navy

Save The Mom Puts A Family-Only Social Network On Your iPhone

Italian company and TechCrunch Startup Alley participant at TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2013 Save The Mom has created an iPhone app that's designed to bring families closer together, with social networking tools designed specifically for private use. It's not only about being social, however, as it includes shared productivity and task management tools to make managing a family easier, too.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/hUb3wiyMIKY/

Shirley Bassey adele

prince of wales theatre (Westminster, London, by scott0430)

Review of prince of wales theatre from 30 April 2013

Prince of wales theatre is very nice and clean theatre with a impressive staff? and a seating capacity of 1,160 people. I have visited last week to watch famous broadway book of mormon show,theatre is situated in a Coventry St, London W1D 6AS.Booked tickets in a stalls and get seat nearby the stage.Very nice show once again ! i want to watch this show when i will get time.

Source: http://www.qype.co.uk/review/3757139

ariel winter Paige Butcher